STATE OF TASMANIA v NATHAN ALAN SCOTT 11 JUNE 2020
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE BRETT J
Mr Scott, you have pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking in controlled substances, in particular methylamphetamine, cannabis, oxycodone and diazepam. You have also pleaded guilty to the summary offence of possessing a smoking device, in particular, an ice pipe.
The trafficking activity took place between March and July 2019. During that time, you were primarily selling methylamphetamine in small individual quantities to consumers. The prosecution case, which is not disputed by you, is that over the five month period, you were selling 10 to 15 points of methylamphetamine per day. The estimated aggregate value of the sales, based on your admission as to the price at which the drug was being sold, is between $71,000 and $149,100. The potential estimated aggregate market value is between $142,000 and $213,000. You also sold small quantities of the other drugs but these sales were isolated and sporadic. You attempted to grow a small amount of cannabis to enhance your saleable supply of this drug, but these efforts were largely unsuccessful.
You are 35 years of age and have no prior convictions. Your counsel has provided me with a detailed history which demonstrates the unfortunate circumstances and events, which you have endured throughout your life. In particular, you have since childhood been afflicted by the regular onset of severe migraines, which you assert is a hereditary condition. You started using methylamphetamine at the age of 15 in circumstances in which you were seeking better pain relief for your condition. You quickly became addicted to that highly addictive drug, but after a few years it seems that you were able to overcome this addiction. That circumstance coincided with the pregnancy of your first partner. You and your family moved to Tasmania about 11 years ago, but soon after arriving here this relationship ended. You have had ongoing difficulties and incurred considerable expense in relation to attempts to see your children, whom your partner took to the mainland after the separation. Four years ago, you formed a new relationship and you and your partner now have young children. In late 2018, for the first time since overcoming your addiction as a teenager, you fell back into the use of methylamphetamine. You were soon using the drug heavily, and the financial demands of this use eventually led to an arrangement with your supplier which in turn led to you commencing to sell methylamphetamine. Your counsel says that your trafficking activity was closely connected to the business of your supplier and engaged in by you solely to ensure a ready and affordable supply of the drug for your own use. You did not seek or accumulate financial profit over and above what you needed to supply your addiction.
The prosecution accept that you were conducting business in the manner described by your counsel and that you were operating at the lowest level of the trafficking hierarchy. It is also accepted that your motive was to fund your own use of the drug. You co-operated with the authorities, including by making comprehensive admissions upon which the case against you is largely based, and you pleaded guilty at an early opportunity. These actions have had a clear utilitarian benefit, but they are also consistent with your claims of remorse and commitment to rehabilitation. You have no prior convictions and, despite the health and drug problems I have already discussed, you have maintained regular employment and demonstrated yourself to be an industrious person.
However, despite these mitigating factors, there are some serious features which need to be taken into account in assessing the objective seriousness of your conduct. You were engaged in a business which involved the regular and continuous sale of methylamphetamine over a significant period of time. It involved the sale of significant quantities of the drug, and can properly be described as a commercial operation, albeit at a relatively low level. As you yourself should well appreciate, this is a destructive and highly addictive drug, and your activities involved its dissemination, in a significant aggregate quantity, to others within the Tasmanian community. While I take into account that your motive was not one of pure financial gain, the reality is that you were making a profit from the sale of this drug and hence you were distributing misery to others for the sake of sustaining your own habit.
Your criminal conduct warrants the imposition of a sentence of imprisonment. I commissioned a drug treatment order assessment report, but I am satisfied that it is not appropriate to engage that sentencing option. At the very least, I cannot be satisfied that suitable facilities and resources are available. I will moderate the head sentence, which I intend to impose, and I will provide for the earliest possibility of release on parole, to take account of the mitigating factors, including the plea of guilty and your prior good character.
The orders I make are as follows:
1 You are convicted of the crime and the offence to which you have pleaded guilty.
2 For the crime of trafficking, you are sentenced to 2 years’ imprisonment, which will be backdated to 28 April 2020. You will not be eligible for parole until you have served one half of that sentence.
3 In respect of count 2 on complaint 7570 of 2019, I impose no further penalty.
4 I make the forfeiture orders sought and particularised by the prosecution.